Situation
A Patient Administration clerk at a medical facility answers a phone call and someone is asking for patient information via email. The clerk begins to provide the caller with the patient information they requested via email. The clerk did not follow procedure by verifying the person they were talking to before sending them patient information. Once the clerk became aware of the mistake he reported it to their first line supervisor.
Ethical Dilemma: Patient personal information was disclosed to an unauthorized person Stakeholders Beneficence Veracity Confidentiality.
1. Clerk:
He has the duty to do right by his organization and himself by accepting consequences for his mistake as soon as possible. He has the duty to truthfully report the incident about sharing a patients' personal information to someone without properly identifying the caller. Even if the incident was accidental. He has the duty to maintain and safeguard a patients' personal information at all times. He also has the duty to keep the incident to himself and discuss it to only personal on a "need to know" bases.
2.First Line Supervisor:
The first line supervisor has the duty to do right by himself, the clerk and the medical center to take the appropriate action to address the situation within the organizations policies. The first line supervisor has the duty to report the incident up to their chain of command/ supervisor/manager. First line supervisor has the duty to keep incident to a "need to know" bases and only those parties involved.
3. Section Manager:
The section manager has the duty to do right by his staff and medical facility. The section manager has the duty to report the incident up to their chain of command/supervisor/manager Section manager has a duty to keep the incident on a "need to know" bases and not to disclose any information to parties not directly involved.
4. Medical facility's Privacy Policy Department:
The organization has the duty to do right by all employees and staff and properly train them. They also need to provide them with the proper tools and resources to complete their daily task and responsibilities to standard. As an organization, the team has the duty to he honest about training employees and staff up to standard on the issue of patient privacy procedures. The organization has the duty to protect and maintain the privacy of all patients private information.
Narrative:
There are a number of dilemmas that are presented to health care providers, doctors, and administration personnel. Confidentiality is a core ethical issues in the medical field. It requires that not only the health care providers and/or doctors safe guard patient's personal information but also administration personal that handles that information. The obligation of confidentiality prohibits the health care provider from disclosing information about the patient's case to others without permission and encourages the providers and health care systems to take precautions to ensure that only authorized access occurs (Bord, 2013).
My reason for choosing this situation is because I work in a career field that requires similar guidelines as that of the health care system when it comes to confidentiality. I personally have been on missions that that required a "need to know". Following the mission high ranking officials would call asking for specific information about that mission. I had to intervene because a co-worker was about to give out information that was secret material via email. He said the person on the phone was a high ranking official. I had to explain to him that you have no way of identifying this person so you can't give out that information. They were also requesting information via email. Not only gives someone who isn't authorized the information but also the possibility of the information being intercepted.
The three principles that I chose where beneficence, veracity, and confidentiality. All three principles play a pivotal role in the scenario. Veracity is the principle of truth telling (Antipuesto, 2011). Veracity highlights the obligation of the clerk to tell the truth about the situation and reporting it to their first line supervisor. Beneficence is defined as moral obligation to act for the others' and intend to benefit or promote the good of others (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2008). I had to report the incident to keep the personal working on the mission safe. Confidentiality implies a relationship between two or ore persons in which information communicated between them is to be kept in confidence (Burk, 2013). Once I notice my co-worker giving out information I was obligated to tell the truth in order to keep the integrity of the mission.
Ethical dilemmas are very common in healthcare and also the military. Whether its between patients and caregivers or platoon sergeants and their subordinate. No matter what your position is you should never underestimate the role each individual plays in ethics and ethical decision making in the workplace. The actions in the matrix all have one common goal and that is to solve an ethical dilemma in the workplace. In the scenario it was to protect that patient and in my personal experience it was to protect fellow soldiers. In all work ethical situations, we all need to follow policies, procedures, and ethical actions would allow for limited workplace dilemmas.
References:
The Principle of Beneficence in Applied Ethics. (2013, October 3). Retrieved June 28, 2016, from https://stanford.library.usyd.edu.au/archives/sum2008/entries/principle-beneficence/
Antipasto, D. (2011, January 11). Ethical Principles. Retrieved June 28, 2016, from https://nursingcrib.com/nursing-notes-reviewer/fundamentals-of-nursing/ethical-principles/
Bord, J., Burke, W., & Dudzinski, D. (2013). Confidentiality. Retrieved June 28, 2016, from https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/confiden.html